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Business & personal finances should not be mixed

People who are self-employed should avoid mixing business and personal finance, one expert has stressed.

A spokesman for the Consumer Credit Counselling Service said this is a mistake that is easily made and can cause financial problems to spiral out of control.

"Some may take out loans and credit cards to support their businesses during the tough times, or use the same bank account for both business transactions and their personal day to day spending," he explained.

"This means that problems in one area can then spill into the other more easily."

His comments follow the publication of a survey by Kensington Mortgages, which showed that one quarter of the five million self-employed workers in the UK began working for themselves less than two years ago.

This suggests that the recession has prompted a large number of people to set up their own businesses as a result of job losses.